The Cubs fell to 7-13 with the loss, and are threatening to repeat of their crippling start of 1997, when they began the season with a National League record 14 straight losses and finished the month of April at 6-19.

Once again, a failure to execute properly did in the Cubs. They hit into three double plays, including one on a poor bunt by Hill, and Jacque Jones air-mailed a wild throw to the plate before being removed in the seventh.

Only a few thousand fans out of an announced crowd of 34,382 remained till the bitter end, seemingly hanging around just to heckle reliever Scott Eyre, who has been shifted to mop-up duty for the time being.

That's how grim it has become.

The Cubs are now 3-9 at home, their worst start at Wrigley since losing 12 straight home games at the outset of the 1994 season. That was when former manager Tom Trebelhorn brought a goat out to Wrigley to end the losing streak. Don't look for Piniella to resort to such tactics, though he did stomp on a toy goat during spring training for a Japanese TV station.

Hill (3-1) allowed four runs on six hits in 6 1/3 innings, including home runs to Prince Fielder and Kevin Mench.

Hill's streak of consecutive scoreless innings ended at 19 in the fourth when Fielder hit an 0-2 pitch into the right field bleachers for a two-run homer. It was Fielder's seventh homer in his first 42 career at-bats at Wrigley, and his third in the first two games of the series.

Hill's 19-inning streak was the Cubs' longest since Carlos Zambrano's 22-inning stretch in '04. The team record for consecutive scoreless innings is 44, set by right-hander by Ed Reulbach in 1908, the last year the Cubs won a World Series.

Piniella's starting lineup included Alfonso Soriano and Felix Pie in the 1-2 slots, while hot-hitting Ryan Theriot, batting .415 over his last 10 games, was on the bench for the second straight day.

"I said we'd get constant at some point, and we're at that point now," Piniella said.

The Cubs managed eight hits in eight innings off of Suppan, but were 0-for-10 against him with runners in scoring position. They snapped the shutout in the ninth when Mench slipped and dropped a Mark DeRosa fly ball. That allowed Daryle Ward to score from first.

Piniella said there was "no reason" the Cubs can't win games at home, and asked fans to be "a little patient" with this team. But the patience is beginning to wear thin after two straight losing seasons and a $300 million off-season spending spree that raised hopes after a 96-loss season.

"The amazing thing about it is we've been in every game we've played, and somehow don't really slam the door," Piniella said. "I think it will come. I'm confident it will."

FALL RIVER, Mass. — In the days leading up to his death, Odin Lloyd and former New England Patriots player Aaron Hernandez corresponded through text messages about meeting, according to testimony given in court Tuesday.

The Republican-controlled Congress admitted defeat and sent legislation to President Barack Obama on Tuesday that funds the Department of Homeland Security without the immigration-related concessions they demanded for months.